Page 15 of Never Not Friends

The kiss starts gentle.

Unhurried.

The kind that obeys age limits and boundaries…at first. But as the seconds tick on, his arm tightens at my waist as the passion builds.

Neither of us cares to stop.

We’re lost in our own world when my bedroom door swings open.

“Emma!” My mother’s voice is laced with parental judgment and disappointment.

We jerk apart.

Her grocery bag slips from her hand.

An orange rolls across the carpet dramatically.

Her tone is firm and angry. “I think it’s time for Vinny to go home.”

EMMA

When you’re a schoolteacher, there’s nothing better than making it to Friday night. And even more exciting is when it’s that one Friday night a month when you get together with your high school friend group.

It’s the highlight of my social calendar.

I walk into Oregano’s restaurant, glancing around for the table of six reserved for my friends. Vinny is the only one seated. Being punctual has yet to let me down in life.

For most friend groups, having one of the significant others come to your monthly friend dinner would be weird. But Vinny’s been popping in every once in a while since we all graduated from college.

He’s part of the friend group in his own way.

Basically, I don’t mind if he comes.

We lock eyes across the restaurant. I smile. He smiles. I smile even more.

How could I not? He’s wearing the gray hoodie he bought two years ago—the one with a grease stain on the front from when the three of us attempted to fry taquitos last summer. And his light-brown hair is doing that lazy thing where one piece curls over his left brow. I’d give anything to run my fingers through it, push it back in place, just to see if it would stay put or fall recklessly over his forehead again.

“Hey, Em.” He uses my nickname like it’s nothing.

“Are we the only ones here?” I take the seat across from him at the end of the table, leaving the middle seats for my more outgoing friends.

“Yeah, Juliet had to run a quick errand first.”

I glance at my phone, reading the few texts that came through while I was driving here. “It looks like Carly left work late. Camila’s coming from Queen Creek, so she’s stuck in traffic, and Blair says she’ll be here in five minutes.”

Vinny smiles. “It’s just us.”

Only temporarily.

“Is that a new shirt?”

I glance down at the blue stripes. “Yeah, but I’m not sure I like it. Earlier today, I caught myself in the mirror, and I looked like one of those illustrated characters from a children’s book.”

Vinny laughs. “Like a blue Where’s Waldo?”

“Exactly! I stand out in a room.”

“You do stand out in a room, but for an entirely different reason.” My pulse trips on his words, but Vinny’s already moving on to his next thought, like saying that didn’t even faze him. “You’ve always loved striped shirts.”